Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

The Rev. Rob Fisher

St. Dunstan’s, Carmel Valley

Readings: Hosea 1:2-10; Psalm 85; Colossians 2:6-19; Luke 11:1-13

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

A friend of mine who has a two-year-old was telling me the other day about how her daughter had a big cyst on her head.  It was like a lump.  It was not dangerous, but she and her husband wished they could remove it from their little child’s head.

When they visited their pediatrician, the doctor told them that, unfortunately, the cyst could not be removed.  The doctor had nothing that he could do, and they were going to have to just get used to it being there.

It just so happens that she has an old family friend of hers named Josie.

Josie is an idealistic person, who some years ago ran off with her husband to become an organic farmer in Hawaii.  If you are picturing a hippie, free-spirit-type person, you’ve got it right.

In recent years, though, Josie has become a born-again Christian.  She has also been studying healing prayer.

When Josie learned that the doctors said there they could not get rid of the cyst, she said, “Let me pray over the child,” and she did so right there on the spot.

My friend, who is an Episcopalian, felt a little odd when Josie did this.

However, really soon after the healing prayer event, and completely to my friends surprise, the cyst went away!

Josie of course was not surprised at all.  She said in complete earnestness that lately everybody has also been bringing her their broken iPhones and she has been fixing them left and right.

***

The disciples in today’s lesson ask Jesus to teach them how to pray.  And Jesus gives them the Lord’s Prayer.

Especially at a time when there seems to be so much that splits us apart and makes us different, this simple and profound prayer is one thing that seems to unite Christians of every background.

Even little children learn this prayer by heart, though it may take them time to fully understand the words they are praying.

I recently heard about a three-year-old named Reese, and this is her version of the Lord’s Prayer:

Our Father, Who does art in heaven,

Harold is His name.

Amen.

One of my earliest memories is sitting on the carpet of our home when I was three or four, and my mom teaching me the words:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Even for those of us who learned these words many years ago, to truly learn the meaning of them is a lifetime process.

***

Last Sunday, during the children’s sermon, something special happened—something worth repeating in case any of you weren’t here and missed it.

Deacon Don had a stuffed animal—a bunny rabbit in fact—and he held it in his hands as he asked the kids what parts of our bodies we use to pray.  He was expecting to use the rabbit to point to the hands (or paws) that we hold together for prayer, or the knees for kneeling.  And the punch line was going to be the ears.  Since rabbits have big ears that’s why he had his prop bunny.  We use our ears to pray because an important part of prayer is listening.

It’s a great message.

But the first kid to answer absolutely floored him.

Bunny in hand, Deacon Don asked, “What part of our bodies do we use to pray,” and without hesitation the child said, “Our hearts.”

Don almost fell over.

Prayer takes place not on our lips, but in our hearts.

Prayers exist not on a written page, but in the space that joins us and God.

Prayer is not a noun, but a verb.  It is not a thing, but a practice.

The words themselves are merely guides for us.  They are the training wheels for our praying hearts.

***

Jesus goes on to give the disciples a teaching on prayer, and we have to be careful because it is a parable that we could easily misread.

First, he says suppose you have a surprise guest in the middle of the night, and you have to go to your neighbor’s house to ask for three loaves of bread so that you will have something to give to your guest.  You go to the door and knock on it and call in for your friend to answer, but your friend is already cozy in bed, with the doors locked, and he doesn’t want to get up and give you the bread.  And the friend says, “Do not bother me!  I cannot give you anything.”

Imagine what this scenario says about what life in community was like the Palestine of Jesus’ day!

Here we have it: the parable of the un-neighborly neighbor.

Jesus then says that even if the man will not give you bread based on his friendship, you know he will get out of bed and give you what you need if you persist.

And Jesus goes on to say, “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”

And then a very strange and memorable teaching: “If your child asks for a fish, would you give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, would you give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

We misread the teaching if we think that Jesus is saying that the un-neighborly neighbor represents God.  The grumpy neighbor is one of us.

And the point is not that we should be importuning in our requests toward God, knocking down the door until we get what we want.

Really, it’s the opposite.

If the un-neighborly neighbor will do what is needed for his friend, how much more so will God give us what we need.

If a parent will give a child what that child needs, and the parent is an imperfect person, how much more so will God take care of our needs, since God is perfect goodness.

Jesus tells us to ask continually, and even habitually.  But the most important thing is to ask trustingly.

Trusting in God’s goodness.

When our petitions are drenched in a holy trust, then we will be praying like Jesus prayed.

***

Some Fundamentalist churches take parts of this teaching and go on to say that we just have to ask for things and we will get them.  Whatever we ask for, God will give us.  This is what the text seems to say.  But we know that this can’t be possible!

If I ask God for the Giants to win the next game, and you ask for the Dodgers to win, what is God supposed to do?

This is consumerism disguised as faith.

This is going to the prayer warrior to have your iPhone fixed.

This is to use God as a tool to our end, rather than as an end in himself.

This is religion that worships ourselves rather than God.

A wise person once said that God answers every prayer, and sometimes the answer is “No.”

Sometimes what we ask for is not for us to receive, but even in those times God gives us the greatest gift possible, God’s best gift, which is God’s self.

Ultimately, that is the highest form of prayer, to simply bask in the presence of God.

***

I have stumbled upon a prayer practice that I like very much that I would commend to you to try.

Late in the evening, when the sun is low but it’s still light outside, I sometimes sit on the grass in our backyard.  Some days I can see the clouds catching the orange light of the sunset.  Other evenings, when it’s a little later, I look up and see the first stars emerging in the purple sky.

I think about my place in the cosmos.

I think about the day that is closing.

I pray my evening prayers to God, and try to listen to God’s Word in the silence.

I close by praying the Lord’s Prayer, but in my own words—which are different every night.

***

Dear Father,

Dwelling in your heavenly kingdom,

May your name be known as holy by all people.

Bring your kingdom to this broken world.

May your wishes be brought to reality,

Here upon the earth as they are in heaven.

Give us all that we need to survive today and tomorrow,

And forgive us when we stray from you and hurt others,

As we ask for the power to forgive those whom we need to forgive.

Lead us away from all that causes us to stray from You,

And protect us from evil. For yours is the kingdom,

And Yours is the power, And Yours is the glory. —Amen.